718 Grand Lofts

[KCDowntown]

I found this little tidbit:

The owners of 718 Grand are considering turning the parking garage into residential. It is a 3-4 story building that reminds me a lot of the Western Union Building that now has the Thai place downtown. Wouldn't that be something; a parking garage turned into apartments?

This certainly looks very preliminary, but good news nonetheless.

CB-Richard Ellis investment properties

[FangKC]

If it's the building I think you're talking about, that structure was built originally as the Grand Opera House in 1891. It's among the 14 oldest buildings inside the downtown loop. Here's what the library has on that building:



Here's a short history from an article in the old Kansas City Times:

The old Grand Opera house at the southwest corner of Seventh and Walnut
streets probable holds more of historic interest than any other building
in downtown Kansas City, but receives little notice. The imposing
structure was built of red brick by Melville Hudson and Abraham Judah,
on land that a had belonged to Nathan Scarritt since 1857 and had been
the site of the old Midland theater, formerly the Panorama house, famous
for the spectacle, "The Battle of Gettysburg."

The Grand opened October 3, 1891 with Patti Rosa as the attraction, and
continued until 1926. Among stars who appeared were Maud Adams, John
Drew, Otis S. Skinner, Ethel Barrymore Billy Burke, Weber & Fields and
Will Rogers.

A drug store is on the right side of the postcard view and Frank Jones's
saloon on left. The saloon displayed fine oil paintings and catered to
fastidious clientele between acts.

In 1926 the Scarritt estate made the building a garage with 11 floors of
parking space. Prom-Sheraton bought the property in 1963.

Some of the old oak columns from the balcony of the theater remain
today, and a 4-foot wooden wheel used in raising and lowering the stage
curtain is intact. According C. W. (Bud) King, who has managed the
Seventh and Walnut garage since 1953.

The imposing minaret and observation balcony which top the exterior in
the picture are gone. Buff paint covers the whole structure, but details
of the fine ornamentation are visible and the sturdy building continues
service in its seventy-seventh year (FangKC note: Keep in mind this article appeared 35 years ago).

Kansas City Times July 27, 1968

[KCDowntown]

It is a different building. The Grand Opera is on Walnut. When I saw this information that was the building that immediately came to mind. But, I drove out to find it and it is a different building. The building is pretty nondescript, it has a parking sign on the front of it, and windows that are big grids of little windows (like on the building that Helix is in).

[FangKC]

I guess I should have read the KC Times article more closely, since it indicated in was on Walnut.

I'll have to drive over there and take a look, since I'm having trouble conjuring that parking garage up in my mind's eye.

I would love for the Grand Opera to be converted from the parking garage into apartments. It would be a cool old building if it had its new windows put in, etc.

[KCDowntown]

I've always kind of viewed the opera building you mentioned as a indicator of how unhealthy our downtown was/is. An opera house turned into a parking garage is definitely a sign of how much our downtown depends on outsiders.

KCDowntown

[FangKC]

I agree KCDowntown. It's happened in other cities too. The Michigan Theater in Detroit was converted into a parking garage. There are scenes featuring it in the Eminem movie, "8 Mile."

The Michigan was a huge theater--probably about the size of the Midland Theater here in KC. Certainly much larger and more ornate than the Grand Opera would have been. Detroit's Michigan Theater was designed by the Chicago architecture firm of Rapp & Rapp, who designed the Empire Theater here in KC.

[SonicBoi]

Fortunatly the Michigan was destroyed in such a way it could be "restored" if they really, really wanted to. I doubt it is likely, though. And I doubt any of the fernishings are still arround. Here is Lowel's Mich. Theatre: http://detroityes.com/downtown/38michtheat_pan.htm

[FangKC]

Sonic, thanks for posting the link to photos of the Michigan Theater. I was going to do that myself, but had to return a video, and pick out another one. When I returned home and logged on, I saw you had already done so.

BTW, I've seen that site before: "Fabulous Ruins of Detroit." I enjoyed looking at it. There is a kind of poignant beauty in those photos. So sad. There are so many grand buildings in that city just left to rot.

I just wish we could take some of the billions we spend on the military budget each year, and redirect those funds to rebuilding, renovating, and restoring all the great old buildings in big city downtowns all over this country. After all, our two closest rivals' (Russia and China) combined spending is about 25 percent of what we spend on defense.

[KCLofts]

That ugly orange garage on Grand has been for sale for at least 2 years, probably longer. I doubt there are any plans to convert it into housing.

I would really like to see something done with the old opera house on Walnut. It was closed last year due to structural problems, so I imagine that some serious investment would be required, both to repair the existing damage and then to gut the parking ramps inside. Its too bad because it is a great building and the exterior appears to be in pretty good shape. I was always amazed that such a grand building was a parking garage.

[Czar]

The Opera Building was purchased by Commerce Bank, no plans for residential.

There could be a much more interesting redevelopment of the building once the north part of the Loop gains some more momentum. You might be refering to the 200 Block of Admiral, I actually heard that there is a drag bar and apartments going in.....not my bag baby, but has to be better than an abandoned building infested with vagrants jacked up on Mad Dog that they just bought from Grand Slam...

[FangKC]

Unfortunately, I really doubt the Grand Opera could ever be turned into residential. Removing the parking ramps would be very difficult because of the rebar in the reinforced concrete. That building was probably gutted when converted, and a rebar-enforced concrete shell installed within the outer shell.

Demolishing that type of concrete shell is very difficult. Extracting it without harming the exterior walls would be problematic at best. A skeleton of that type cannot be disassembled in pieces like stone or brick. You either have to have a bulldozer to knock it down, or have to use explosives. Either choice would result in the exterior being damaged--probably beyond repair. It would be similar to removing the studs in a house without removing the exterior or interior walls.

The only way I could think to do it would be to disassemble the brick exterior walls brick by brick, demolish the concrete inner shell, and then reassemble the exterior brick walls around a new skeleton. That would be prohibitively expensive. I guess one could also leave the concrete inner shell in place, and remove the ramps one-by-one using some type of concrete cutting saw, breaking up the concrete forming the ramp, cut the rebar, and then rebuild the walls where the ramp was.

The other option would be just to leave the ramps in place and seal them off entirely with walls. The floorspace would be lost, but I guess it might be worth it to save the structure.

One could also incorporate the ramps into a loft by splitting the loft into two levels--like a duplex with upper and lower levels. A staircase could be constructed over one side of the ramp. The other side could be walled off and used to house a furnace, water heater, and a closed off storage area. With enough design ingenuity, the problem could be overcome.

Any engineers could there that can explain how to remove the interior concrete shell, or just the ramps while preserving the rest of the building?

[mean]

I'm don't think I'd want to remove them. I like the idea of utilizing the existing structure in a new design. Anyone have a diagram of the interior?

[KCLofts]

The existing floors don't match up with the original floors. So you have floors cutting through the middle of windows. I don't think you could do much with it as is. It also sounds like removing the parking infrastructure is not feasible. Looks like we'll be losing another historical building.

[mean]

Oh, yeah, that does suck. Too bad.

[SonicBoi]

Finally, I found the pic of the Grand Opera House.

[zonk]

http://718grandlofts.com/

Interesting! Good addition to the north loop....

[geeman68]

http://718grandlofts.com/

Interesting! Good addition to the north loop....

This should be intriguing to watch. I used to park in this garage and am very interested in how they will convert this to loft apartments. The plans and such look good but those are some very high rents but with nice amenities and a great walkability score. Have to see how it comes out and if they are built out on time next fall.

[Pork Chop]

http://718grandlofts.com/

Interesting! Good addition to the north loop....

2.5 blocks from a streetcar stop.

[flyingember]

good fundamentals. the most ironic aspect is they didn't use any photos of the view from the building for the website despite mentioning it as a key item

[taxi]

Yeah, a view of Grand Slam would be grand.